Antwerp 70.3 Race Preview

30Jul09

Last year saw me move up to the half Ironman distance (or Ironman 70.3) by taking on the mountains of Monaco, and finishing in the slow, but acceptable time of 7:49. When Pete and I sat down to review the year and talk about the races I might think about races for 2009 almost the first thing we decided on was to go for a course better suited (less hills, more flat).

After a fairly comprehensive review of all the 70.3 races, Antwerp seemed to come out on top, a good time in the year to have my main focus (peaking, rather than starting to tire as I did last year in September). Lots of great things going for it, but mainly, it’s FLAT!

Compared to Monaco, this race feels like something of an unknown, as the information available is not as comprehensive – but here’s what I do know, and what the race strategy is.

Swim (1.9km)

The swim is on a lake in the leftbank, and is a lap around it – it all looks fairly straightforward (though the video I found on You Tube did seem to show people sailing in the middle of the course – could be interesting). In terms of tactics, I’ll be looking to get into the right position at the start, at Monaco I was too far forward, and spent the first 400m trying to survive people passing me. The wave start at Antwerp should help this as well (though no doubt I’ll get overtaken at some point by the fast people in the following waves).

T1

Then it’s onto T1, Antwerp is a split transition, meaning that T1 is not in the same place as T2 – my first race like this, and again could be interesting. As usual, aiming to be quick through transition, but to also make sure I get some fluid and food down me and make sure I’m keeping these levels topped up.

Bike (90km)

The bike appears to be a tour though the city, out into a couple of loops round an industrial estate. One of the D2T triathletes did the race last year warned me to watch out for a lot of railway and tram line crossings (always the cyclists favourite!). Otherwise, the route sounds quite like London, flat with small ‘hills’.

Strategy wise, I’m splitting into 3 30km chunks (each should be just over an hour), the first will establish what pace I feel comfortable at, hen hopefully able to left and push on with the second one – this should be the fastest of the three. Then the third is either an oppurtunity to push, but keeping a focus on not killing my legs for the run. It’s very easy to push to hard on the bike (especially as it’s my strongest discipline) and lose much more time in the run than was gained on the bike.

T2

As for T1, not too fast, but not a dawdle either. Make sure I get some nutrition, and if it’s sunny, some protection, i don’t want to get burnt like I did at the Cowman.

Run (21.1km)

Looks like a very good run course, flat, and around Antwerp city centre – no long stretches into infinity, and lots of people watching and supporting.

On the other hand, my run seems to have been the weakest this year (not surprising as it exacts a toll on the respiratory system, which still feels at 80% after my bug at the beginning of the season). I also managed to do something to my ankle a few weeks back, it should be OK – but need to manage carefully.

It’s three laps, so again this helps split into a 3 part strategy. Part 1 – survive, it will be horrid of the bike, I need to keep it calm, not worry about time, and work though it. Part 2, getting better – normally would be my fastest, but will run conservatively so I can build into lap 3 – which is all about hanging on!

Race route can be found here Click here to download the route (jpg) >>

Overall, a time of 6 hours to 6 and half hours would be fantastic, but would require a very good day from me, however I expect to be under 7 hours – we shall see though, a lot of bridges to be crossed before the finish line.

So I’m pretty excited about this race, Mum and Dad are coming up to Antwerp from the end of a few weeks in France, so will be good to have some support.

The race kicks off at 1100CET on Sunday, updates here, at http://twitter.com/lxinspc and Facebook during the weekend.

Run (21.1km)

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